[Pippi2017]

I recently managed to convince my mom to see a psychotherapist to help her cope with the challenges of a debilitating motor disorder. The therapist currently charges over $200/hour and has recommended a family counseling session as well. This would largely involve each family member venting and brainstorming ways to improve our interpersonal relationships. However, this 1.5 hr counseling session would cost $600. The $600 comprises a $330 charge for 1.5 hours of therapy for my mom and $90 per family member. I find this to be very cost prohibitive and cannot understand the rationale behind the way I am being charged for the following reasons.

1. Each family member is being charged an additional $90/head for the session. Why are we being charged when we are not technically her patients?

2. Even if we assume this is a form of group therapy, why should my mom be charged the full price for this session as she would in an individual session? From my point of view, she is not getting the level of attention she would be getting if she were one-on-one with the therapist.

I find this way of charging to be extremely cost-prohibitive and and would like to know if this is typically how psychotherapists charge their clients? Moreover, all this is out of pocket. I look forward to some input from the community. Thank you.

[atisketatasket]

In the US i haven't heard of anything like this. Usually a therapist who sees both individuals and couples charges the same rate per hour. And likewise the same charge per hour is made to the existing client when family members come in. On the other hand, I don't know if it's against the law to do something like that here in the US or whether it is just realized that it is not good business practice, for exactly the reasons you mention.

[kecanoe]

That is ridiculous, IMO. When I have had sessions with family members, it has always been the same cost as individual sessions. And that is with 4 different ts over the years. And I think $200 for an individual session is quite high.

I have had a session with H and brother in law that went for two hours, and we paid for two sessions, but that seems fair because t would have ordinarily seen two clients in that time period.

[junkDNA]

That is a lot of money. Seems really pretentious

My T charges around $100 per 50 minute session and also offers sliding scale

[LonesomeTonight]

I'm pretty sure my marriage counselor charges the same for H & me ($175, though insurance reimburses 60%) as he does for individual clients. That adding money per family member sounds ridiculous to me! I could see charging more for going over the usual time, but not for additional people. Could your mom try to find a different therapist who charges more fairly?

[stopdog]

I have always believed/seen that many will charge whatever the market will bear. Which can be surprisingly large in some places.

Are there others you can try for this family thing?

In the U.S., my experience has been that family sessions are the same rate as individual sessions. Sounds like things work differently in Singapore.

Regardless of what the formal regulations are, I think that $600 is extreme for 1.5 hour of therapy. I live in a very expensive area and my experience is that professionals (not just Ts) do try to charge as much as possible if clients go with it. My second T's full fee is apparently >$300/hour for individual sessions but I paid $200, that's pretty much the high end of what I feel talk therapy is worth. It's definitely something that can be discussed.

[skeksi]

Singapore's exchange rate reduces those fees in USD but even so, the added cost seems excessive. Have you considered asking other Ts about their fees for family therapy?

The cost is such that it seems like more than one or two family sessions would be unaffordable, which is probably unfortunate. This is your mom's T, but who would pay the bill for the session?

[Ididitmyway]

If you are really in Singapore as your profile suggests, I don't know anything about normal psychotherapy practices there.

In the US what you are describing is highly unusual. First off, therapists normally charge for their time not per person who comes to a session (with the exception of group therapy). In family therapy or in individual therapy the fees don't depend on the number of people that come to sessions. That said, therapists can and sometimes do set different prices for individual, couple's and family therapy. But the price of the same modality doesn't change with the number of people. Also, in those cases, couple's and family therapy sessions are usually longer.

As to the amount your mom's therapist is charging, it is unusually high, but under the market economy I don't think you can do anything about it except to find a less expensive therapist.